Blogs from Amritsar, Punjab, India, Asia

I have been to numerous religious pilgrimage sites in my life; I have stood in awe under the frescoed domes of St Peter’s Basilica together with seeing the supposed places of Jesus’ birth and death. I’ve placed my hands upon the ‘Wailing Wall’ in Jerusalem and gazed upon the golden ‘Dome of the Rock’ within, sacred places to both Jews and Muslims. Lumbini, birth place of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama in Nepal is next on the list! However, in each of these places, I cannot recall a friendlier, warmer welcome than that which we received at Amritsar’s Golden Temple. India has quite the tumultuous history, in particular as it relates to its north western territories. Years of bloodshed, suppression and prejudice led of course to the creation of Pakistan, a land formed by the Indian states ... read more

We flew into Amritsar and had an expensive taxi ride £10 to our hotel The Akaal Residency, which was small but very friendly and very convenient for the sights. The roads are small like Jodhpur but in better condition and are cleaned each night. Traffic was normal Indian chaos where nobody ever gives way to anybody else resulting in blocked traffic at many junctions. If only they could see that it is quicker to let someone through rather than block him so that nobody gets through. Soon we were on our way to see the sight we had mainly come for ‘The Golden Temple’, which is the centre for the Sikh religion. First we had to remove shoes and socks and cover our head, then bathe our feet. They even produced scarves on loan and had ... read more

So now that the group had disbanded. Leaving me to deal with Ciaran single handedly (poor guy). We headed out for dinner and beer and then for some internetting. Ready to leave for the train station at 9pm so to be early and not miss the train. 9 pm came I made a quick dash to the loo, train toilets arent the best. Came back Ciarans gone. 'But where?' I ask the man. Back to the internet, I stomp off down the road, it's now 9.05 and i dont like being late!! Ciaran is trying to skype his dad, no answer on skype, try again, still no answer. I march off to get both our bags and to nudge him to hurry the f*ck up. 9.15 no answer. So Ciaran rings his mobile he's not even ... read more

Our stay in Amritsar has been short, but we have been very busy. The first morning we crossed the street to the Golden Temple - we couldn't be any closer. Since we are so close, my four travel companions and I have spend a lot of time there, walking around, meditating, etc. We visited the Sikh Museum that shows this history of the ten Gurus, right up the present day Sikh leaders. The spirituality here is so strong, you can feel it as soon as you step on the grounds and are asked to leave your shoes at the gate. You wash your feet before entering the sacred area around the temple. They feed many people on the temple grounds free of charge. You can stay as long as you want and you are only expected ... read more

Tina- First of all can, I just point out that this 7 hour train ride started at 6:40 am, which meant we had to get up at like 5am! That was a struggle for us,clearly. So the train ride was jokes...we were the only two people in this compartment that were clearly not part of this religious Sikh pilgrammage. Not only was there lots of praying the whole way there, but there was food, which they insisted we ate (which we did,despite Figgy being conviced the yogurt they gave us was 'fizzy') We were so full after the first round, we had to pretend to be asleep the next time! Figgy The yogurt was fizzy!! anyway, it was very funny as the guy leading this pilgrimmage was wearing a pink polo neck with his name in ... read more

On Saturday morning, we packed our bags and began our journey to the pool of nectar, or so the city, Amritsar, is named after. I had already been sick since Thursday but felt much better Saturday morning, so I decided it would be fine if I still went. (How can you miss out on a city with a name like that?) Aoife and I were pretty much cursing the quiche we had shared two days before after the bus began its journey down the mountain. Amritsar basically contains three temples, two Hindi temples and one Sikh… and that’s pretty much it. These temples, however sick you are, are most definitely worth visiting. After checking into our hotel, we decided we should probably go eat as we hadn’t had anything for around six hours, the length ... read more